The New Zealand Government’s introduction of the Clean Car Standard for vehicle emissions on April 1 saw ute sales fall off dramatically for the month, but the Toyota Hilux has lead a partial rebound in May.
According to Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency data, the Toyota Hilux was the island nation’s best-selling new vehicle in May 2022 with 942 registrations.
It was followed by the Toyota RAV4 (923), Mitsubishi Outlander (824), Kia Stonic (564), and Mitsubishi ASX (402) in fifth place.
In total, 10,575 passenger vehicles and 2762 commercial vehicles were registered in May, 13,337 vehicles overall for the New Zealand market. This is a 26.8% lift relative to last month’s 9757 registrations, underlining that the market is returning to normal. But it’s still 8.3% down relative to the 14,552 vehicles registered in May of last year.
As previously reported, ute registrations exploded in March off the back of dealers around the country pre-registering stock in order to reduce the amount of customers paying high-emission vehicle Clean Car Standard levies.
This prompted ute registrations to plummet in April, with most dealers having registered their stock in the previous month. Outside of the Hilux, it appears most of the country’s popular ute nameplates are still available pre-registered, with the Ford Ranger being the only other pick-up to make it into the top 10.
The Ranger ended the month in sixth, with 388 registrations. The Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (386), Suzuki Swift (327), Kia Sportage (325), and Toyota Corolla (308) round out the top 10 most popular vehicles for May.
By comparison, just 121 Nissan Navaras, 114 Mitsubishi Tritons, and 54 Isuzu D-Max models were registered in May.
Toyota owned the largest chunk of the passenger registrations market share, with 18.1% from 1911 registrations, ahead of Kia (16.2%, 1713), April winners Mitsubishi (15.9%, 1685), Suzuki (7.0%, 742), and Hyundai (6.5%, 684).
Toyota also led the commercial market, with 42.1% from 1163 registrations. Ford was second with less than half the registrations; its 418 units equating to 15.1% market share. Mitsubishi (5.9%, 163), Isuzu (5.3%, 147), and Nissan (4.4%, 121) completed the top five.
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